Democrat David Cicilline appears to be crumbling under devastating ads run by Brendan Doherty highlighting Cicilline’s mismanagement of Providence when he was Mayor, his lies during the 2010 congressional campaign about Providence’s finances, and his soft law and order record.

Doherty, the former Superintendent of the State Police with a stellar reputation, is making the race about character.

A new GOP poll found Republican Brendan Doherty leading Rep. David Cicilline (D) by 6 points in the hard fought and bitterly nasty race for Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional district.

The respected Republican firm OnMessage conducted a survey of likely voters for Doherty, which found him leading Cicilline 45 percent to 39 percent in a horse race matchup. Six percent of those polled said they would vote for independent candidate David Vogel, while 11 percent remained undecided.

Forty-two percent had a favorable view of Doherty, a retired state police officer, while 33 percent had an unfavorable view. Thirty-nine percent had a favorable view of Cicilline, while 46 percent had an unfavorable view of him….

The race appears to have turned significantly more competitive in recent days….

Doherty has more cash on hand to continue the air war, but national Democrats are coming to Cicilline’s aid.

The best evidence that this race is tight is that both national parties now are pouring money into the race (keep in mind that Rhode Island is a small television market, so these amounts go a lot further than elsewhere):

The cost of the air war in Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District jumped by more than half-a-million dollars on Friday as national Democrats moved to blunt their Republican counterparts in their push to save Democratic Congressman David Cicilline from defeat on Nov. 6.

A Democratic source confirmed Friday that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will spend $315,000 on a new round of TV commercials starting Tuesday to aid Cicilline. The Democrats’ buy was placed just hours after the National Republican Congressional Committee revealed it will spend $280,000 on a final round of commercials to help Doherty.

This is my home District. The Dems are worried. They are running Bill Clinton robocalls to virtually every house (we received one).

Yes, we lean heavily Dem, but Cicilline’s unfavorables versus Doherty’s favorables make party ID less relevant in this race. In fact, Cicilline’s ads generally say “HE’S A REPUBLICAN” and not much else, that being all he has to work with. Rhode Islanders know and respect Doherty. We also know and disrespect Cicilline. After what he did to Providence, he has proven that he is not to be trusted.